Wiz Khalifa – O.N.I.F.C.

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In 2010, Wiz Khalifa dropped his Kush & Orange Juice mixtape, 20 tracks of breezy near-cloud-rap that meshed perfectly with the then-22-year-olds zero-expletives-given persona. In 2011, he made his major-label debut with the pop-hop sparkle and chart-mounting singles of Rolling Papers. Here, Wiz jumps from style to style indiscriminately, going for atmosphere that would have fit in just fine on the former project (Paperbond, Bluffin) and radio-bait more appropriate for the latter (Let It Go, Work Hard, Play Hard). It is not a cohesive album, and it doesnt try to be. Thats not the worst of its problems.

Wiz has never been, and probably never will be, much of a lyricist. Instead, he writes for perma-hazed teenagers eager to update their status with one of his indispensable maxims  Stackin cheese til my bread right / Smokin weed til my head right, etc. On O.N.I.F.C., though, Wiz lets loose too many lines that look incongruous on paper and dont fare much better when magnified by his occasionally awkward flow: So much money that when I pull up / Hop out and walk in, the bank teller look at me funny. (Its also easy to get the sense he might be saying something he doesnt really mean: Im the shit, literally.)

When all else fails, Wizs saving grace has historically been his ability to craft an epoxy-sticky hook at will. But even that particular gift of his is mostly absent here. The albums most memorable melodies come from Akon on Let It Go and The Weeknd on Remember You; Wizs own hooks are almost always too corny, too repetitive (repeating a phrase over and over, especially one as easy as the titular one on “It’s Nothin'”, tends to be a cheap way of doing things), or both. Wiz doesn’t often come across as having much of a direction, but things like that are what make him strike as more lost than ever here.